Brooklyn, NY – A picture capturing a slice of life in New York City has gone viral over social media, with hundreds of users sharing the image of a black-hatted Orthodox Jew and a black man playing chess in a New York City park last week.
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The picture, titled Checkmate, was taken by Flatbush resident Mo Gelber, an Orthodox Jewish street photographer on May 7th.
After the photograph appeared in Hamodia this week, explaining the story of how the unusual chess match came about, one of the chess players was identified as Rabbi Dovid Bergman, an Amshinover chosid from Borough Park.
The photo, which has been making the rounds on Facebook and Reddit, has also caught the eye of the NYPD, according to Yanky Meyer Founder of Misaskim.
“I actually found out about the picture from the police department,” Meyer, a good friend of Rabbi Bergman’s, told VIN News. “They were in awe of the unity that that picture showed and it shows how far we have come.”
According to a close friend of Rabbi Bergman’s who asked not to be named, the chess game took place in Manhattan when Rabbi Bergman took a quick break on a lengthy train ride home from a job interview with a yeshiva in Queens.
“He was just walking in the park when this guy invited him over to play a game of chess,” said the friend, who described the 28 year old Rabbi Bergman as an extremely bright, charismatic talmid chochom, with a magnetic personality, who is a highly sought after maggid shiur, despite his young age.
While Rabbi Bergman is not an avid chess player, he handily defeated his unidentified opponent in under five minutes.
According to sources, the two men shared no meaningful conversation during the game and did not exchange names. Once the game ended, Rabbi Bergman resumed his trek back to Brooklyn and it was only days later, after the photo appeared in Hamodia, when someone approached Rabbi Bergman in shul, asking him who won the game that he discovered that his short chess match had gone viral on the internet.
Gelber, who took the now famous picture on his Canon 6D, had ducked into Tompkins Square Park in the East Village to make a quick phone call when he noticed the pair playing chess.
“I sat down to make my call and I saw these guys and I thought it was just a beautiful moment,” said Gelber. “There are so many unfortunate racial stereotypes and so many instances where the two communities don’t get together as often as they should and I knew that I had to take this photo and that it would be a hit.”
Gelber, an aspiring photo journalist, posted the photo on Facebook, where in his words, “it just exploded,” as it was shared numerous times. Since then, Gelber has been contacted by various media outlets, both Jewish and secular.
“I looked at this picture and it said to me that one day humanity is just going to get it right and we are going to stop fighting with each other based on stereotypes,” said Gelber. “We have so much more in common than we have differences.”
Gelber often goes out on “photo adventures”, walking the streets of New York in an attempt to capture noteworthy moments.
“Before I go out, I always put a coin in the tzedaka box and I ask Hashem to put me in the right place at the right time,” said Gelber. “A street photographer looks at the street as a theater and every day in New York City, there are 7 million shows going on. We have a split second to capture the moment and immortalize it in a picture.”
Very nice photograph. Shows how Israel can indeed be friendly and others can be without hate. A nice thing to show the world. Too bad its so uncommon in places like Brooklyn that it becomes a story.
Chess is a very good game to learn. Might make you a happy future.
With all due respect, for those of us who have never had any racist attitude, I find this picture is nice but they are making more of it than it needs to be. Blacks and Jews get along all the time. I don’t really see the chiddush here, other than the perception that Jews and Blacks don’t get along.
Nice!
beautiful photo and beautiful story. I want to know how we can see more of the photographers street theater photos.
Nice Picture, but perhaps shows how racist this article is. What is the big freaking deal here?
dear flatbusher : you are correct jews and blacks do get along well – i have some black drivers that work with me that are exemplry people whats unique about the picture is the confidence & shtultz that a good ” yankee chusid” has to be secure and comfortable polite but with a distance as all the BERGMENS are –
Anyone else notice which side of the board Rabbi Bergman chose? 🙂
The issue is not why dont blacks and jews get along. The issue is Why are we EXPECTED not to get along. This is mostly isolated to the thrills of New York. I never in my town ever feel that this mystique of the black and the jew is reality in my home. But of course, penny logic has half pence outcomes. Never again.
Nice photo, but I’m disappointed that everyone’s making such a big deal out of it. I live in Brooklyn, and I see people of different ethnicities getting along and interacting in a normal manner all the time. Maybe out in Sioux Falls or Cheyenne people are not used to seeing this. But to us Brooklynites… we’re used to seeing all kinds of people. And we know they can all behave and interact like mentchen. (Most of the time.)
it would have been even nicer if the black man would have been playing the white side, and the white man the black side..
We will know that we are no longer a racist society when pictures such as these are no longer news worthy.
I love the comments here that are tantamount to, “I am not a racist; some of my best friends are black people.” How many times has VIN reader had a social interaction with a person of color outside of a co-worker, a house keeper or a “Shabbos goy?”
Don’t overthink it. It is a nice slice on NY life.
this is a very nice photo. I googled the photographer Mo Gelber and I found alot of his work to be amazing.
This photo shows how people should be friendly and get along regardless of their race and religion. I dont think the photo implies that the jewish community doesnt respect their neighbors. In many cases we are friendly with our neighbors. But the photo just reminds us of how people should treat each other in a friendly way.